Fair Housing

ARTICLES ABOUT FAIR HOUSING BY DATE - PAGE 4

By David L. Greene and David L. Greene,SUN NATIONAL STAFF | March 29, 2002

WASHINGTON - President Bush is set to nominate a Randallstown woman who runs a nonprofit that seeks affordable housing for seniors to a top post at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the White House announced yesterday. Carolyn Y. Peoples, 56, a Baltimore County native, would become assistant secretary for fair housing and equal opportunity if confirmed by the Senate. She said in an interview last night that the toughest task awaiting her is to address a "backlog" of complaints from people around the country who say they were denied housing illegally - because of their race, for example, or a disability.

By Lourdes Sullivan and Lourdes Sullivan,SPECIAL TO THE SUN | April 20, 2001

HAVING SURVIVED the Ides of April - the taxman cometh - we can turn our attention to more enjoyable matters. Chief among them is recognizing the achievements of those around us - such as those of Fulton Elementary School fourth-grader Sarah DeLuca. She was recently selected as one of 12 winners across the state of the Maryland Association of Realtors' Fair Housing Poster Contest, and traveled to Annapolis on Tuesday to receive her plaque. "My art teacher, Mr. [Jeff] Dombek, told our class that [the contest]

HAD THE FAIR Housing Act existed in the 1950s, Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun" might have been significantly different. The Youngers, a fictional family based on Hansberry's, would have had an easier time leaving a Chicago slum area and moving to an all-white neighborhood, improving their standard of living and helping their dreams come true. Such was the connection Francis Scott Key graduate Kim Mathias made in the essay that won her a $500 scholarship from Carroll County Association of Realtors.

WHEN LOCAL REAL estate agents saw Sinclaire Vinson's vision of fair housing, they knew they had a winner. The 5-year-old Marriottsville pupil's entry in the annual fair housing poster contest - which won first place at the state and county levels - features two red houses holding hands. Both houses - one of which has black features, the other white - stand within a caption that reads "Have a Heart! Be a good neighbor!" Sinclaire submitted two entries. "Both her posters were easy favorites of the committee," said Karen Blandford, head of Westminster's Office of Housing and Community Development.

Despite a warm reception from real estate agents, the fair-housing advocacy group Baltimore Neighborhoods Inc. has closed its Westminster office because funds ran out, officials said. Two years ago, BNI opened satellite offices in Carroll and Harford counties to launch a pilot Fair Housing Initiatives Program, said Joseph J. Coffey, the organization's director. "These were the only outposts we've ever had, although we do fair-housing work all over," he said. "There's been a lot of migration out of the city into these counties, and if there are bad housing patterns occurring, it would be farther out."

In Baltimore County Man severely burned in explosion while working on his boat PARKVILLE -- A man who was working on the ignition system of his gasoline-powered fishing boat was severely burned from the waist up yesterday in an explosion, said a county Fire Department spokesman. John Kraupa, 47, whose address was not available, suffered second- and third-degree burns in the incident at 6: 30 p.m. and was in critical condition in the burn unit at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, said Lt. Robert Rossman.

Ruling in a precedent-setting case involving fair housing laws, a federal judge in Baltimore has ordered the developer of an Anne Arundel County condominium project to pay $333,145 to make common areas accessible to the disabled and to retrofit individual units. The order by U.S. District Senior Judge Walter E. Black against LOB Inc., developer of the 156-unit Lions Gate condominium in Odenton, is in addition to a $240,000 settlement agreed to by Rommel Builders and John A. Rommel in the four-year-old suit brought by the fair housing advocacy group Baltimore Neighborhoods Inc. Black's order follows a weeklong trial in November to set damages, and comes a year after he found that the developer and builder of the 12-building garden apartment project had violated federal law by failing to make the units accessible towheelchair users.

The owner of a company that shelters recovering drug addicts and alcoholics in Harford County says a proposed Bel Air zoning bill would ban group homes such as his and violate federal housing law.Jack Lyons, president of Maryland Recovery Partners Inc., said the ordinance would violate the Federal Fair Housing Act by permitting some types of group homes but excluding facilities that treat those recovering from drug or alcohol addiction."

Baltimore Neighborhoods Inc., a fair housing advocacy group, has opened an office in Carroll County to monitor inequities in home rentals and sales."Our only agenda is to see that fair housing laws are followed," said Patricia Staples, outreach coordinator. "We cannot change negative attitudes, but if landlords or home sellers are breaking the law, we can do something."The private, nonprofit organization, which was started in Baltimore nearly 40 years ago, uses testers -- who assume the role of homebuyers or renters -- to help judge the local housing market.

CATONSVILLE -- A defiant Robert Clay says county complaints about the two large "Eileen M. Rehrmann For Governor" signs on his property at U.S. 40 west and Lincoln Avenue are politically inspired. And the Rehrmann supporter argues the county law banning campaign signs until 30 days before an election is unconstitutional and says he has no immediate plan to remove them.County inspectors have issued three zoning citations against the Republican campaign, totaling $4,800 in fines, based on complaints about the signs.